Music...a passion

Music is something that gives me immense pleasure.I can go on hours and hours listening to music that I love.When I am alone I like soft music in my room.I often sleep to the mystic sound of favourite music. My mother realized my musical instincts very early and so I started learning Hindustani Classical music at the age of 9. I remember my music classes used to be on every Wednesday evening 5 PM and I didn’t like the timings as it was my playtime !!! It then got shifted to Sunday mornings which was then suitable to me !! I had picked up very quickly and came to know many ragas and taals over the years…from raag bhairav to bhoopali to yaman to asavari and many more…and of course the various taals that they are based on dadra , kaharva , teentaal and so on. My highly learned guru was a Bengali lady and so she also taught me Robindra Songeet . My hands were well set on my Harmonium which I used to play . Little kid that I was, I often didn’t do the ‘Riyaz’ as other engagements also attracted me like my friends playing a new game or my brother playing a new video game. It has been years now that I have not played my Harmonium which still occupies the same place in my room in my house in Ranchi…Yes, I make sure that whenever I go home I take it out , dust it , tune it and open my old Music Diary which still has a sticker over it written –“Upasana Sinha,Std 2 ‘B’
and play it… My fingers now fumble and I realize I am not that adept as I used to be and I have to look at the notes and play while earlier I could play even with closed eyes. Of course… as my Guru always said ‘RIYAZ’ is very important , the more you do the more hold you will have…
It has been more than 10 years now and the little fingers that used to play the keys of the harmonium now play the keys of the laptop and do all sort of technical miracles. I am really amazed when I compare the 2 keys – first – of my Harmonium and second of my Thinkpad. Clicking the keys of the first kind can render innumerable tunes of music to soothe one’s mind and lift one’s spirit. A feeling that perhaps no money can buy..a state of mind that no other engagement can replace .The latter is no less.Clicking on my Thinkpad , I do things that helps global organizations streamline their entire process.I implement SAP in their business by which my organization claims that they (Client) lower costs, posts profits !!!! Big profits..big deals , big money …may also soothe some people’s minds… who knows…Diiferent people have different temperaments and different ways to see life and be content.

Well …since sometime I am having an urge for something… I want to learn playing the piano and also learn the dance form salsa. While salsa is much in vogue these days in NCR and there are many dance schools which send pamphlets in the newspaper that I get everyday morning about their experienced and trained dance teachers,I don’t know about piano classes in Gurgaon …This reminds me of the Grand piano that my father says was in our ancestral house in Munger, Bihar.Apparantly , my Great great grandfather was a great connosier of music and had the Grand Piano transported all the way from England in those days. Sadly enough, the piano was destroyed in the fury of the Great Bihar Earthquake that had hit Munger very badly in 1934. The remenants of that piano , a few rods and keys though still remain in the ‘Tehkhana’ of my ancestral house ‘The Lawn’ in Munger,Bihar. I have seen them with my own eyes there although I feel a little scared going down there as it is dark there and bats will fly above you as you enter the creeking iron door… Anyway, lets leave the scary part..the good thing is that my family still retains the Polyphone music box and it lies there grandly in the Living Room.I think it is nearly 100 years old. I remember once my dad went to an antique shop in Kolkata to enquire about a spare part for our polyphone and will you believe?? The guy started enquiring the make , details and all and was ready to pay a handsome piece for our Polyphone as it came in antique category!!!Of course my dad went away as he didn’t want to put a kind of family heirloom in some antique shop.

Well, coming back to my latest desire of learning salsa and piano… I’m figuring out what to do . im sure if I find seriously I’ll find some Music school in Gurgaon which will offer both these art forms…I’m making up my mind and checking my office schedule.It’s a li’l hectic these days as I’m working on a critical assignment. I think piano classes will have to wait…till then I’ll play them in my dreams and play with the keys of my Thinkpad in actual so that my organization fulfills client expectations on time and make them post profits so that the CEO of a Top German chemical company rests in peace!!!!!